Impeller for comminuting apparatus



June 29, 1954 FRANK 2,682,376

IMPELLER FOR COMMINUTING APPARATUS Filed Aug. 9, 1959 IN VEN TOR. F u/L A. FZANK zbzpwim ATTORIV'EXS.

Patented June 29, 1954 IMPELLER FUR C-OMlVIINUTING APPARATUS Paul A. Frank, Akron, Ohio, assignor to National Rubber Machinery Company, Akron, Ohio, a

corporation of Ohio Application August 9, 1950, Serial No. 178,488

1 Glaim.

The present invention relates generally as indicated to an impeller for comminuting apparatus and more particularly to an impeller for comminuting apparatus of the type which comprises a tubular casing providing a comminuting chamher into which refuse to be comminuted may be deposited, and an impeller across the bottom end of such chamber operative when rotated to effect comminution of the refuse by cutting action of impeller vanes or blades and axially extending ribs formed in the side wall of such chamber. With such comminuting apparatus, the refuse is ground or pulverized and with the assistance of water admitted into the chamber, the comminuted refuse is flushed from the chamber and through a discharge passage below the impeller into a sewer.

Some objections to prior art impellers of this character are that they are wholly made of metal or like relatively rigid material with sharp edges in order to obtain an efficient shredding or cutting action and, of course, said impellers must be provided with cutting edges which are in relatively close proximity to the ribs or like cooperating cutting edges formed in the sidewall of the comminuting chamber. As a result, bones and other relatively hard substances occasionally become wedged between the aforesaid cutting edges of the chamber wall and the impeller, thereby either stalling or overloading the electric drive motor for the impeller. Moreover, the wedging of such hard substances may necessitate a complete disassembly of the apparatus so as to enable forcing of the impeller out of wedged position in the chamber.

Accordingly, it is one primary object of this invention to provide an impeller for comminuting apparatus of the character referred to which has a disc-like portion and vanes formed of rubber or rubber-like elastic material to eliminate the possibility of such wedging of the impeller by bones or other hard substances.

Another object of this invention is to provide an impeller which at the speeds of rotation thereof in the comminuting chamber is radially expanded by centrifugal force to move the outer periphery of the impeller and the outermost edges of the vanes substantially into contact with the side wall of the comminuting chamber (or into rubbing contact therewith if desired) for preserving the efiicient shredding characteristics of the impeller while yet permitting starting of the apparatus under a small load, such being possible because, of the initial clearance between the peripheral portions of the impeller and such chamber side wall when the impeller is stationary or is rotating at low speed.

Another object of this invention is to provide an impeller for comminuting apparatus which operates as a silencer and has a shock absorber and Zeb-25?) 2 which is of such construction as to minimize the possibility of damage to silverware or other metallic articles which inadvertently may be loaded into the comminuting chamber together with refuse to be comminuted.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent as the following description proceeds.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, said invention, then, comprises the ieatures hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims, the following description and the annexed drawing setting forth in detail one illustrative embodiment of the inventicn, this being indicative, however, of but one of the various ways in which the principle of the invention may be employed.

In said annexed drawing:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation view, partly in diametrical cross section, illustrating one form of apparatus having the improved impeller therein, and

Fig. 2 is a transverse cross section view looking down on the improved impeller, such section having been taken substantially along the line 2-2, Fig. 1.

Referring now more especially to the drawings, there is shown therein a comminuting apparatus I which includes an upper tubular casing 2 adapted to be suspended from a sink S as by means of a sink flange 3 which overlies the top marginal portion of the sink drain opening 4 and which is threaded at its lower end for engagement with threads formed in the upper open end of said casing '2. A gasket 5 is held in sealed engagement with the bottom marginal portion of the sink drain opening 4 as by means of the screws 6 which are threaded into lugs l in said casing 2 and have their heads engaged with a bearing plate 3 underneath said gasket 5.

Said casing 2 is formed with a comminuting chamber 9 open at its upper end for loading of refuse through the sink flange 3, said chamber including a downwardly and outwardly flaring portion it which has ribs ll extending axially along the inside wall. The lower end of said casing 2 is formed with a counterbore [2 to receive a shredding ring 13 which also has formed on its inner surface a series of axially extending ribs H providing cutting edges between successive ribs.

Secured to the lower end of said casing 53 as by means of the semi-circular bands hi and 15 secured together by screws 16 is a drive motor housing ll, the motor drive shaft 53 having keyed thereonto a disc-like impeller l9 extending substantially across the entire bottom end of the casing. Said motor drive housing l'i is formed with a discharge port 20 leading from a chamber below the impeller 19 and adapted to be connected with a sewer for discharge of the comminuted refuse.

The under side of said impeller I9 is formed with radial vanes 2| which move around the discharge chamber beneath the disc-like portion of said impeller to clear out comminuted refuse and move the same toward the discharge passage 20.

Bonded to, molded to or otherwise secured to the upper face of said impeller I9 is a rubber or rubber-like elastic member 22 which is in the form of a dish of outside diameter only slightly less than the inside diameter ofthe shredding ring l3 and having chordally disposed vanes 23 and 24 extending upwardly therefrom, said vanes 23 and 24 preferably being of unequal length, as shown, so as to facilitate shredding of grapefruit and orange hulls and similar refuse which otherwise tends to spin about the axis of the impeller in the absence of such unequal and nonradially disposed vanes 23 and 24 as herein illustrated. Vanes 23 and 24 and the disc-like por tion of said member 22 are made entirely of rubber or rubber-like elastic material, whereby upon rotation of said impeller 19, said disc-like portion of said member 22 and the outer edges of the vanes 23 and 24 thereon will move radially outward by centrifugal force into engagement or substantially into engagement with the cutting ribs ll of said shredding ring :3. This affords a construction having a very efficient cutting action and, at the same time, if bones or other relatively hard substances or fibrous substances become wedged or jammed between the periphery of the disc portion and the outer edges of the vanes 23 and 24 and the inside wall of the comminuting chamber 9, as constituted by the ribs i i, or by the ribs 1 l in the shredding ring I3, the disc portion and the vanes may readily be deformed to permit a continuous rotation of said impeller l9 without stalling or overloading and thus damaging the electric drive motor 11. Moreover, the grinding of relatively hard substances is done with considerably less noise than if a solid metallic impeller were employed. Moreover, because the disc portion and vanes of said impeller iii are of an elastic character severe shocks are absorbed thereby in cases of rapid movement and bouncing or sudden wedging of such hard substances in the comminuting chamber 9.

The electric drive motor 11 may be controlled by any suitable switch which may be mounted adjacent the charging passage and actuated by a stopper inserted in the sink flange 3 and when the electric drive motor is energized, water is continuously permitted to flow from the sink into the chamber 9 whereby to assist in the comminuting action and to flush away the comminuted material through the grooves formed between the ribs H in the shredding ring l3 into the discharge passage 20. In the present case, the electric drive motor I! is controlled by a manually operated switch 25 mounted on the side of the upper casing 2, but as indicated before, the switch may be disposed elsewhere and may be actuated either manually or by some suitable stopper device or the like if desired.

The impeller i9 is preferably rotated in the direction indicated by the arrow in Fig. 2 and as best shown in Fig. 1, the upper surface of the disc member 22 is curved upwardly and outwardly to a general dish shape which has been found to substantially improve the operation of the apparatus as a whole because of the tendency of such dish-shaped surface to hold back or prevent direct gravitation of particles through the 4 grooves formed between the ribs I in the shredding ring I3.

It is to be understood that in some cases, the shredding ring l3 may be formed as an integral part of either the upper casing 22 or the lower electric motor housing I! insofar as the essential features of the present invention are concerned.

It is to be noted that in the broader aspects of the invention, said impeller 19 may have one or more upstanding and generally radially disposed vanes 23 and 24 of non-metallic elastic material fixed directly thereto, omitting the rub ber-like facing disc 22. In such case, the elastic vane or vanes on the impeller would yet have the function of'-'inducing rotation of the mass of refuse supported on the impeller while the longitudinally' ribbed surrounding wall of the casing would have the function of opposing such rotation of the refuse whereby to set up a shearing and comminuting action between the relatively rotating portions of the mass of refuse. Moreover, should hard substances in the refuse become wedged between such elastic vane or vanes and the casingwall, said vane or vanes will be deformed to permit a continued rotation of the impeller without stalling or overloading the drive motor I1.

Other modes of applying the principle of the invention maybe employed, change being made as regardsthe details described, provided the features stated in any of the following claims or the equivalent of such be employed.

I, therefore, particularly point out and distinctly claim I as my invention:

in combination, a comminuting apparatus formed with-a comminuting chamber having a charging passage at its upper end, a disc-like impeller-extending across the lower end of such chamber and forming with such chamber at the periphery-of said impeller a series of relatively small downwardly extending passages through which comminuted refuse from above said impeller may pass, said impeller presenting an upper face of rubber-like elastic material and having integrallyformed thereon an upstanding and centrifugally movable vane extending from the periphery of said impeller and from a point in close proximity to the adjacent side wall of such chamber to a point within the periphery of said impeller, and means for rotating said impeller within such chamber to cause radial movement of said vane toward and away from the adjacent side wall of such chamber in accordance with the speed of rotation of said impeller,v said vane and the peripheral portion of such upper face .of said impeller being further disposed to yield and deform upon wedging of refuse between said impeller and chamber side wall whereby to permit continued rotation of said impeller in such chamber.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,748,050 Harrington Feb. 18, 1930 1,912,408 Schelhammer June 6, 1933 2,004,573 Galley et a1. June 11, 1935 2,156,075 Alexay Apr. 25, 1939 2,220,729 Powers Nov. 5, 1940 2,322,058 Powers June 15, 1943 2,508,583 Smith May 23, 1950 

